A Boston College sports blog capturing the highs and lows of being a BC fan living 1,000 miles from Chestnut Hill.

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Statement game? Looked like it to me

Which team looked like a tournament lock tonight? I have to hand it to Donahue and crew. After allowing VT to close the gap towards the end of the first half, they killed the Hokies for long stretches of the second half. That sort of determination will be vital for the next week (and hopefully two weeks). These are my thoughts. Leave yours below.

Likes-- Corey Raji on Defense. He set the tone early. He provided great help and hit the defensive boards hard.-- Josh Southern in the paint. Good minutes from Southern tonight. More inspired defense than we are used to and he had some good post moves.-- Critical 3s. So much of tonight was about momentum. When BC was down early we hit some 3s. When VT made a run, BC would answer with a dagger of a 3.

Dislikes-- BC against the 2-3. We were lucky Greenberg didn't use it as often in the second half. When he went to it in the first, BC got sloppy with some possessions.-- Dumb fouls up late. When the game was out of reach BC -- understandably -- eased up. But I still didn't like the dumb fouls. You have to remain focused.

24 comments:

I have to give credit where credit is due....Southern played MUCH better tonight and looked like he actually wanted to be out there. Much more aggressive rebounding from him. Now if only he could develop a drop step move instead of only going right.

How about John Cahill? 12 point sand 4 boards for a guy who was playing intramural ball last year.

Going from Skinner's rotations (7-8 guys, no changes) to Donahue's (9 players play and it is not always the same 9) must make the competition in practice rather intense. I mean, you must have Rubin and Cahill playing their tails off in practice to get that coveted three-point sniper role in the starting lineup.

Did anyone catch the words exchanged between Seth Greenberg and Reggie Jackson during an inbounds in the middle of the 2nd half? Looked like Greenberg was trying to bait Jackson into a technical, shortly after Greenberg was give his.

I haven't seen the box score, but it seemed like BC just dominated the boards -- Southern, Raji, Trapani all were aggressive and boxed really well. The only negative that troubled me was the number of times Delaney or Green were able to penetrate with ease and hit easy lay-ups and runners. Biko's defense against that stuff is ghastly, or maybe ghostly as in "only in spirit". His feet never moved. Granted, Delaney is wicked quick, but that was ridiculous and the help was frequently non-existent. It was VT's only offense for most of the game.

Obreezy, I saw that too and was really wondering what was going on. Reggie was responding to Greenberg but wasn't looking at him. Greenberg absolutely looked like he was trying to initiate some sort of conversation. I hope he wasn't trying to bait him into a technical, that would be really classless on his part. Maybe he was telling Reggie, "you're killing us, please ease up!"

Great game all around, I can't think of anyone that played poorly (maybe Biko on D?). Moton played probably his best game of the season and Cahill got his sneaky 5 rebounds for the second game in a row.

I don't want to be the one bringing up the elephant in the room, but it would epitomize everything that is BC sports if we lose to Wake.

Very similar situation to '08-'09 season going into last regular season game....that year we were 8-7 and played 2-13 Georgia Tech at home on Tyrese Rice's senior day...if not for a very difficult 15 foot fade away by Rakim Sanders with about 3 seconds left, we would have lost and finished 8-8....difference is we probably still would have made the tourney given that we had some huge wins that season....lets hope its not that close against Wake

Biko plays no D. That's bad enough. But the fact that he is our worst passer as our "point guard" makes things even harder to watch. He never seems to hit anyone in the hands where they can do something with the ball Also, he can't hit a shot unless he is standing motionless.

Southern is not very gifted. But when he produces 6-8 points it makes us a much more formidable offense and opens up the three.

As my co-season ticket holder Ry pointed out to me last night, Cahill has become the Apanavicious of the hoops team. Or maybe the Dwayne Pina. Either way you have to love it.

I'm disappointed I will miss my first home game of the season v. Wake on senior day. It's been a weird season but I am happy with what this team has done. Go Eagles!

Another bizaare season. The parity in the NCAA means that if these guys want to make a run, they can be in the Sweet 16...VaTech is days away from beating #1, and then we smoke them?! This tells me it is all up for grabs this year, and maybe it is this BC team that will surprise me and do something memorable.

I haven't enjoyed watching a BC game that much in a while (in any sport). Every time it looked like VaTech might start to pull back into it, someone stepped up and the Eagles answered. Just a great effort all around.

If all of the rest of the conference games play out as they should (i.e. the favored team wins), BC will get the 4 seed in the ACC tournament. If (in chronological order)....Maryland beats Miami tonight, Duke beats Clemson tonight, Clemson beats VTech on Saturday, Maryland beats Virginia on Saturday and BC beats Wake on Sunday. The biggest "toss ups" are Maryland/Miami tonight and Clemson/VTech on Saturday.

Not true. If Duke beats Clemson that leaves them at 8-7. The winner of the Clemson-VTech game gets the 4 seed. With a win Clemson would be 9-7 and own the tiebreaker with us or VTech would be 10-6 if they won. We are basically locked into the 5 seed with a win.

Great night all-around. Definitely pleased with overall rebounding effort, Southern's offensive contributions, and Cahill's development. While I would've liked to see Trapani score more, I like the fact that he defended Allen much better than the last time we played them.

I don't think there's any question you have to leave Raji in the starting lineup from now on. **** the off-the-bench energy. He's just too valuable. Total monster last night, especially against Jeff Allen who constantly ruins us. Will be glad to see Allen graduate.

I think I'd rather the 5th seed. We've had the #1 in-conference SOS up to this point - it would be nice to play Wake Forest back to back to get to 20 wins and 10 in conference, what I assume to be benchmarks for which the selection committee could not ignore. Then we'd have a 2nd round game against Clemson, whom I swear we could beat so long as the game isn't at Clemson.

BCFan09er....if the above scenario plays out, BC, VTech, Clemson and Maryland would all be 9-7....BC wins the 4-way tiebreaker with the best head to head record (4-1) in that group. Am I missing something?

If BC, Maryland, Va Tech and Clemson all end up at 9-7 (WI Eagle's scenario), head to head with Clemson does not govern. Per page 7 of this document on ACC.com, the three way tie procedure would give BC the #4 slot. http://www.theacc.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/acc/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/weekly-release

Excerpt - "(3) If three or more teams are tied in the standings, the following procedure will be used:a. The combined record of conference games between the tied teams involved will be compiled. Ties will be broken, and seedings assigned, based on the winning percentage of the combined conference records. The higher winning percentage shall prevail, even if the number of games played against the team or group is unequal (i.e., 2-0 is better than 3-1; 1-0 is the same as 2-0 . . ."

Following that rule, if all four finish up 9-7, then BC's relevant record for the tiebreaker would be 4-1; Clemson's would be 2-1; MD would be 1-4 and Va Tech would be 2-3.

With Maryland's loss, it looks like the 4 seed is no longer in play. If we win and Clemson beats VTech it would be a three way tie resulting in Clemson getting the 4 by virtue of their 2-0 record against us and VTech. We'd have a 2-1 record, while VTech would be 0-3.

Essentially, the winner of the Clemson vs VTech game is the 4 seed and the loser drops to 6th. As long as we win, we'll grab the 5 and set up a rematch with Wake. I see this as being high risk, low reward. Win against Wake do pad our win total, but they also drag down our SOS and RPI. Can't do much about that though I suppose, all we can do is win the games we play. I'll root for Clemson because I think we have a better shot of evening the score with them in the second round than winning a third game against VTech on the season.